National parley at Toronto unites people’s demand for peace

Massey Hall.
While displaying wide political,

Their unity was expressed
Of the conference: the Peace
Pledge. resolutions; and reports
Of the seven panels.

Among those who took part
in the peace forum were Saskat-
chewan Minister of Health T.
J, Bentley, a corresponding
delegate; David _Pelletterio,
President of the 12,000-member
Junior Farmers Association of
Ontario; the poet J. S. Wallace;
Catholic Syndicate. unionist
Romeo Tremblay of Montreal;
David Busby, Trinity College
theological student; boilermak-
er Sam Jenkins of Vancouver;
4nd many others. The Canadian
Peace Congress, sponsors of the
conference, reported 2,818 dele-
Sates and observers, including
Ver 400 corresponding dele-
Sates. ‘

Sessions concluded with a sol-
€mn vow that delegates would do
all in their power “to keep Can-
ada at peace in a world at peace.”

Dr. Endicott, chairman of the
Peace Congress, put before dele-
Sates a ‘Canadian Peace Pledge,”
Which delegates endorsed and will
ake to their family, friends and
all Canadians to “Pledge Canada
for Peace,”

_The pledge, fruit of two days

Iscussion and search for com-
Mon ground takes the position
that there are “no international
differences which cannot ibe settl-
€d by negotiations.” It maintains
hat “peace can be saved if the
five great powers heed the de-
Mand of the peoples and sign a
Pact of peace declaring that un-
®r no circumstances will they
pee war one upon the other.”
i“ Calls for “the gradual, controll-

and simultaneous reduction of
’rmaments by all countries, tak-
Ng into full account the securi-
Y needs of each.” It asks for

© “total abolition” of ‘atomic,
8cteriological, napalm  (jellied
8asoline) bombs and other weap-

Ons “for the mass destruction of
People.”

G Dr. Endicott said he hoped the
@nadian Peace Pledge would be

Signed or endorsed by all Can-
adiang,

e

The conference, climaxed by a
Dublie rally in’ Maple Leaf Gar-
Ms May 11, heard delegates
from nearly all provinces and rep-
Tesenting a wide cross-section of
Pinion. Delegates of all faiths—
man Catholic, Protestant,
Ba’hai and other religious beliefs
ee Spoke. Many trade unionists
Tom unions of the Canadian Con-
8Tess of Labor, the Trades and
Rat Congress, Catholic Syndi-
: ®S of Quebec and %ndependent,
ayers. emphasizing the urgency
re-opening trade
World in order to reduce unem-
Goyment which is growing in
aMada. Union spokesmen said
Pe armaments race could not
é Ult in full employment and

Suld only lead to war.
ore than 500 delegates came
ee Quebec and more than a
re, including students, union-
Sts, anti-conscription groups and

with the,

“Let free discussion contribute to the peace we all want,”
Was the appeal in the call to the great weekend Conference on
Reace, Arms Reduction and Trade, held May 10-11 in Toronto’s

__ From the opening address by Dr. James G. Endicott titled
Strength Through Peace,” the scores of speakers that followed,

religious and social differences,

found they could unite around one all-embracing issue—the need
for a many-sided campaign tto stop a third world war.

in the approval
2,000 attending delegates at the closing sessions to the final work

given by over

others, spoke in French at the
plenary sessions. All sessions of
the conference were conducted in
French and English. under the bi-
lingua] chairmanship of Jean
Pare of the Montreal Peace Coun-
cil.

So wel] represented were dele-
gates from youth organizations—
‘both French and English speak-
ing—that a special plenary ses-
sion was devoted to youth and
peace. One young French-Can-
adian speaker summed up the
sentiment. of all when he said:
“T am 20 years old. [ do not
want to die.”’

Dr, Endicott’s keynote ad-
dress stressed there could be
no security or peace in strength.
“What statesman worthy of the
name could for a moment claim
that national security lies in
rearming to the point where a

world explosion must occur?
There is no peace in strength!
There is only strength in
peace.” |

Pointing to the need Yor an or-
ganized peace movement, he said
the operative slogan of the move-
ment was to ‘do everything to
unite, do nothing to divide.’”’ The
‘Canadian Peace Congress, he said,
had ‘‘no monopoly on peace.’’-

Reviewing the work of the Con-
gress in sponsoring national peace
conferences and raising the con-
fidence of people that peace could
be won, Dr. Endicott said:

“In 1949 not many people in
Canada saw this truth. At our
second and third: national con-
ferences in 1950 and 1951, the
great movements to ban the
atomic bomb and to obtain a
five-power peace pact spurred
the peace movement forward.
Today in 1952, we can Say with
pride that the forces of peace
throughout the world have
staved off atomic war! We
have won four years of peace!
That a great accomplish-
ment. Our purpose here is to

extend that four years to last-
ing. and permanent peace.”

“An arms race is the philoso-
phy of despair,” he said, ‘‘the ad-
mission of bankruptcy, the mark
of cynical disbelief in mankind,
the policy of' those who coin
money out of arms while people
suffer increasing want and de-
privation.”’

He set before the conference a
detailed set of proposals calling
for the controlled reduction of
armaments including the outlaw-
ing of atomic, bacteriological and
other such weapons under strict
international inspection and con-
trol system. He called for ne-

is

gotiations by the five great pow-}

ers to sign a pact of peace and
a proportionate reduction in the
armed strength of each. He said
the opening of free world trade
was particularly necessary for a
trading nation like Canada which
is so dependent upon export mar-

kets.

.

Miss Mary

who was to have addressed the
Arms Reduction and Trade.

Jennison (above), secretary of the Canadian
Peace Congress, protested strongly to the federal government
against exclusion of Mme. Isabelle Blume, Belgian Socialist MP,

Government excuse was that Mme.
Blume might address meetings other than the conference,

National Conference on Peace,

Two thousand delegates at conference
endorse ‘Keep Canada at peace’ pledge

folklore of my church,” of the
juggler in the monastery who
made the statue smile. All people,
he said, have something to con-
tribute, no matter how small, ‘‘for
the benefit of Our Lady, Our Lady
of Peace.” :

‘Both the artist and the people
seek beauty, but this beauty is be-
ing taken from us and.replaced by
the ugly — the instruments and
the hysteria of war. ‘‘Today in
Korea they make a wilderness and
fcall it peace.’’ he said.

The young working farmer,
David Pelleterio, president of the
Junior “Farmers Association of
Ontario, said: ‘‘Speaking on be-
half of my organization
want to say we are behind the
peace movement.”’

A young engineer, Joe Kelly of
Toronto, spoke of the need for
speaking to the young engineers
of Canada, Can engineers produce
instruments that kill? he asked.
He believed engineers wanted to
justify themselves by building
things for peace, It was necessary
to show them a new way of
thinking — that the making of

In a stirring conclusion to his
address, Dr. Endicott expressed ,
firm confidence that “this splen-
did conference . . . will be listen-
ed to.by the government of Can- |
ada, and by the people of .our|
country. Let us not~- underesti-
mate the power of our voice. ...
Many of us here have lived
through two world wars. A third
world war is unthinkabie. It must
not be. This is the noblest cause,
of all. Let us make peace tri-
umph over war.”

Claude Lacouline of Chateau
Richer, a‘ Catholic youth leader,
and Ted Baxter of Montreal co-
chaired the special youth sessions.

Real Couillard, a leader of
the Anti-Conscription League of
Quebec, declared that only
world peace would end the,
threat. of military conscription.
Others who spoke among the
over 500 Quebec delegates includ-
ed Roger Payer, boot and shoe

worker, and Mme, Jeannette
Brunelle.

Mme, Brunelle told of .the
battle of her organization — the
Tenants’ League of St. Louis in
Montreal—to win the women and
families of Quebec for peace. She
spoke of work under police in-
timidation but recorded that de-
spite these things their efforts to
conduct house meetings and es-

tablish a network of ‘‘maisons
pour la paix’? were very success-
ful. e

Secretary of the Montreal

Peace Council Miss Helen Hall
told of the combined operations
of some 40 RCMP, provincial
and civic ‘police who sought to
intimidate the departing Mon-
treal and Quebec delegations at
Windsor Street station. ‘‘Many
of the police tried to get on
the train and take pictures. I
told them they could snot do
it. One of them warned me:
‘We will put you behind bars’.”’
Some police cameramen went
to the length of mounting the
station barriers to take pic-
tures.

She urged that the conference
protest the harassing of the dele-
gation in a strong message to

Premier Duplessis.

Leslie Morris, a delegate to the
Sheffield-Warsaw peace congress,
told the plenary that
“never in the history of our coun-
try had there been such a unify-
ing idea that transcends all sec-
tional interests, religious or poli-
tical’? than the one of peace. ‘In
the rejection of the use of force
and violence as between states
there is and must be no division
of opinion,” despite the wide dif-
ferences of necessity, on all other
questions of politics and econom-
ics. d

“We must have peace to de-
cide, argue arid debate the pro-
gress of humanity. No one wants
peace more than those who dream
and hope for social progress.
Life is peace, peace is unity,
unity is patience, understanding.
Patience, understanding and uni-
ty around peace is an unconquer-
able power.

session

“Peace must be preserved as it
is now, The governments as they
are now constituted must. be pre-
vented from waging war. It is
peaceful co-existence or perman-
ent war. Peace can be imposed,
can be maintained and won for
all time, because the people can
only dwell in a world of peace.”

Dr: F. W. Hanley of Regina,
speaking as a member of the med-
ical profession, said the question
of war raised an ethical~problem
for doctors. ‘‘The. doctor’s role
is to preserve peace,’’ he declared,
“and relieve suffering. He takes

an oath to the latter effect. There-’

fore, he must by reason of his
oath, oppose war, for war can
only mean the destruction of life.”

Organized medicine in this
country had not yet entered the
fight for peace as they are doing
in Burope, he said, although there
were many individual doctors tak-
ing their stand. He appealed to
those in the peace movement to
reach out to doctors and other
professional people in every com-
munity, ‘‘We are racing against
time,” he warned, ‘‘and we must
rally the forces of peace faster
than forces for war are being or-
ganized.” :

J. S. Wallace, outstanding Ca-
nadian poet, speaking as a Roman
Catholic, told a story “from the

weapons of mass’ destruction was
a crime,

Minister of Health T. J. Bent-
ley of the Saskatchewan CCF
government wrote the confer-
ence: “No possible harm could
come to the world if a pact is
signed in good faith by the five
great powers named, by which
each promises not to make war
against any of the other four
powers.

“Much imminent danger will be
removed by the banning of man’s
destructive weapons and by ac-
complishing agreement to scrap
such weapons as are now in ex-
istence. Undoubtedly the great
masses of working people will
breathe easier if an arms reduc-
tion program can be agreed on by
all nations of the world. In my
opinion, however, such a program
would require international con-
trols.”

He also declared it would be
‘fllogical to exclude the present
government of China from the
UN,’ and gave hearty support to
“any move which will result in
greater development of world
trade to the point where trade is
unrestricted.”

Mrs, L. Naylor of Vancouver,
in her late’ sixties, mounted the
speakers rostrum to tell delegates
she was the mother of two boys.
“Bring our boys back from Kor-
ea” was ber passionate appeal,
and give them an opportunity to
live and let live, she said.

A communication was received
at the conference from Jean Laf-
fitte on behalf of the World Coun-
cil of Peace, who stated that the
use of germ warfare by U.S. forces
in China and Korea ‘“‘puts a great
responsibility on all peace-loving
peoples to stop this crime im-
mediately and to ban forever the
use of all weapons of mass de-
struction.” :

A cable from the Chinese Peace
Committee in Peking sent “‘warm-
est greetings’’ to the conference,
and declared: ‘“‘American aggres-
sors are rearming Japan, obstruct-
ing Korean’ armistice talks, and,
in defiance of international law
and human _ justice, employing
bacteriological warfare in Korea
and China to massacre the peace-
ful population.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 16, 1952 — PAGE 7